CB5

This is Oswego to Port Colborne, by way of Rochester . . . actually Charlotte on the Genesee.   The whale-watch headed Grande Caribe.  No . . . the Great Lakes have no whales. At the port is Robert S. Pierson, a river-class bulker.

I repeat a variation of this image.  The Erie canal flows under the arched bridge and the Genesee . . . under the longer, flatter bridge.

We take a pilot right outside Port Weller, the Ontario end of the Welland Canal, and then

enter upbound.

 

Nassau-flagged Victory II met us between locks 7 and 8.

From right to left here, that’s Pierson  again, a sailing vessel, and Capt. Henry Jackman.

Now more on that sailing vessel . . . schooner Empire Sandy.  You have to read this link:  she started her life as a tugboat!

HMCS Oriole is a 1921 ketch, whose origins hearken back to both Toronto and Neponset, MA.

 

Capt. Henry Jackman waits in Port Colborne as does

Baie St Paul. Jackman was built in the Collingwood Shipyards, whereas St Paul comes from Jiangsu China.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

12 Lakers a

To start, these are boats, I’m told, not ships.  I first saw the type as a kid, reading a book that made an impression and crossing the St Lawrence on the way to the grandparents’ farm.

I’ve posted Great Lakes photos a fair number of times in the past few years, so I continue CYPHER series here with Manitowoc –a river-size self unloader–departing Cleveland for Milwaukee.

Alpena–1942–with the classic house-forward design transports cement.  I was thrilled to pass her late this summer on a magnificent Lake Huron afternoon.

Although you might not guess it, Algoma Harvester was built here half a world away from the Lakes.  To get to her trading waters, she crossed two oceans, and christened less than four years ago.  The selling point is that she carries more cargo than typically carried within the size parameters of a laker (Seawaymax), requires fewer crew, and exhausts cleaner.  I took the photo on the Welland.

Thunder Bay hails from the same river in China as Algoma Harvester and just a year earlier.  The photo was taken near Montreal in the South Shore Canal.

Tim S. Dool was built on a Canadian saltwater port in 1967.  I caught her here traversing the American Narrows on the St. Lawrence.

American Mariner was built in Wisconsin in 1979.   In the photo below she heads unbound on Lake St. Louis. I’ve seen her several times recently, here at night and here upbound St. Clair River.

Baie St. Paul is a slightly older, nearly identical Chinese built sister to Thunder Bay.

Algolake, launched 1977,  was among the boats built in the last decade of the Collingwood Shipyard.  

Lee R. Tregurtha, here down bound in Port Huron,  has to have among the most interesting history of any boat currently called a laker.  She was launched near Baltimore in 1942 as a T-3 tanker, traveled the saltwater world for two decades, and then came to the lakes.  I  also caught her loading on Huron earlier this year here.

Mississagi is another classic, having worked nearly 3/4 of a century on the Lakes.

Buffalo, 1978 Wisconsin built, and I have crossed paths lots recently, earlier this month here.  The photo below was taken near Mackinac;  you can see part of the bridge off her stern. Tug Buffalo from 1923, the one going to the highest bidder in five days, now stands to go to the bidder with $2600 on the barrelhead.

I’ll close this installment out with lake #12 in this post . . . .    Hon. James L. Oberstar, with steel mill structures in the background, has been transporting cargo on the lakes since the season of 1959.  She is truly a classic following that steering pole. See Oberstar in her contexts here, here, and really up close, personal, and almost criminally so for the diligent photographer, here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  More to come.

 

 

24 Hours Along the Welland Canal, Part a

I knew but never adequately processed until now how much traffic passed through this passageway into and out of the continent.  More pics when I have time.